“Experts or talented employees in particular can act as influencers”

Author: Gabriela Hein
Date: 02.03.2022

The digital transformation of social media usage behavior is having a massive impact on content marketing. The area is now one of the most important distribution channels. In an interview, Dr. Sandra Gärtner, co-founder of the market research and technology service provider GreendAdz and CEO of mediaresearch42, explains the importance of influencer marketing in the B2B sector and how it has changed in recent years.

1. What role does influencer marketing play in the B2B sector?

An underestimated one! We regularly publish study compendiums, and the €1 billion market in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that rejoices at the mere notion of influencer marketing usually refers to B2C campaigns. This means that we generally envision the classic Instagram posts in which micro- to mega-influencers enthusiastically talk about new products from the fields of food, interior design, fashion and beauty. This campaign is actually much more effective than traditional online advertising, but that is another topic altogether.

In the B2B sector, influencer marketing works from a psychological standpoint in the exact same way but in terms of implementation, the campaigns are of course designed differently. In the Statista Content Marketing Compass 2021, it was already shown that influencer marketing is primarily used as an instrument for content distribution marketing. That means that influencer marketing in B2B is at a similar level as print mailings and can be used to complement PR strategies — with a trajectory that is clearly on the upswing. And when I look at the success arc of influencer marketing in B2C, it can be assumed that the role will become even larger in B2B, for the challenges are in fact identical: 1. the effect of traditional advertising is dwindling on account of the information explosion; 2. online and social media are overtaking print media; and 3. the specialists who fill these channels are becoming scarce or tend to decide in favor of B2C brands as employers.

2. Which specific challenges exist for B2B influencer marketing campaigns?

Aside from the the ones just mentioned: fresh insights from the now 12^th wave of the benchmark study from the Content Marketing Institute for B2B reveal that the greatest challenge for B2B decision makers currently consists of finding suitable experts.  In the end, influencers in B2B are after all experts of highly specialized subject areas with a broad sphere of activity (to speak of reach would be incorrect here). The paucity of experts who could for example serve as guest authors is currently creating major headaches for B2B marketers.

In our current Statista Content Marketing Compass with the focus on social media, I consider this to be the most pressing challenge of all: “The budget does not appear to be the problem. The percentage of those who said that budget problems presented a challenge in the search for personnel and employees sank to 40%, compared to 51% in the previous year.” The major hurdle for contract awarding B2B marketers entails finding partners with sufficient topical expertise (65%). This topical expertise involves not only an adequate understanding of the target groups and personas but also a knowledge of how the content marketing ROI is distributed. Precisely in the B2B area, the topic areas are decidedly varied, and established expertise is scarce.

3. Who qualifies as an influencer for B2B companies and why? 

Particularly in the B2B area, the selection criteria for suitable influencers differs from that in B2C. Neither range nor the so-called brand fit come first. Rather, it is all about experts or talented employees who can serve as influencers: an industry insider, a prominent user, or a renowned (specialized) journalist.  A B2B influencer is a person who possesses a high level of authority and authenticity or who has a specific and impressive level of industry expertise. When a television or movie celebrity likes a B2B product and talks about it on social media channels, this is fantastic, but it is not particularly relevant for B2B customers. More suitable for this are staunch and long-term customers.

In the B2B world, the extent of an influencer’s fame is not so much at the fore as the level of that person’s expertise, savvy, and of course a certain affinity for and enjoyment of social media, e.g., LinkedIn and XING. For example, as a XING insider for the topics content marketing and social media. I am also a B2B influencer for this industry — only in terms of reach, it comes down to quality over quantity.

4. How has influencer marketing changed in recent years?

Here too, it is worth taking a look at B2C: influencer marketing has developed from an occasional use of testimonials via the meteoric rise of the significance of social media platforms into a strategic marketing instrument. No longer is it a matter of “trying things out” for individual campaigns. Rather, great value is placed on a qualitative selection of suitable partners and long-term collaboration on an equal footing is sought.  From this, meaningful synergies are generated (as is the case in B2C) in the area of content production: When an influencer produces content for the brand and the collaboration is fruitful, it is not only possible to significantly reduce production costs of complex advertising material, but the result is also much more successful.  When the collaboration also boosts the influencer’s reputation, that individual really goes into overdrive. In short: it’s a win-win situation.

Whereas in earlier times, guest articles appeared in specialist media, digital media is now of course also accelerating the impetus of influencer marketing in B2B. What Instagram and TikTok are to B2C, XING and LinkedIn are to B2B. And as a distribution channel of social media campaigns, Facebook is still not to be underestimated for B2C and B2B.

5. Which experiences have you already had with influencer marketing campaigns in the B2B sector and which trends have you observed?

Indeed, I can point first and foremost to my rich repertoire from the B2C realm. Here I have witnessed the same developments as the ones from 20 years ago in online marketing or traditional online advertising. As the market and/or reach expands, so does the relevance of justifying the allocated budgets and demonstrating success. I have been doing this for display campaigns for 20 years and for influencer marketing campaigns for the past few years.

However, such traditional campaign-accompanying advertising efficacy studies are only relevant for B2C because reach and target group fit apply here.  In B2B, the targets and metrics are different. A campaign with a media budget of a million is a frequent occurrence. To prove how many of the “right” people from the target group have seen the campaign and whether the message has arrived is the objective of success measurement here. In B2B, the case is such that a single guest article or post on LinkedIn has to reach only one potential customer at the right time to then secure a million-dollar deal. In order to demonstrate this, other tools and evaluation systems are used.

To sum up, I anticipate the following trends:

• Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly significant as LinkedIn and XING increase their reach and relevance.
• The selection of the right influencer will be the sticking point but on the positive side: The market is still young and that means that there are advantages to being the first one to implement these measures.
• The level of professionalism will continue to grow: In the way that experts and agents for influencer marketing exist in the B2C realm, additional individuals will be added to B2B and, similarly, internal resources for the topic will be added. Demonstrating that social media and influencer marketing in B2B allows a lot of room for creativity might attract a few specialists from B2C companies or encourage internal resources/talents to develop further in this direction. The pandemic has shown how B2Bers are capable of action and pragmatic where digitalization is concerned. By the way, this is an additional finding from the current studies that we have presented in detail in the new Compass.

All in all: the future looks bright for influencer marketing in B2B!

Current topics and trends – plus free infographics

“In my Marketing Strategy, Data
Storytelling is paramount”

Author: Gabriela Hein
Date: 01.12.2021

Ann-Katrin Maiworm joined Slack as the Head of Marketing DACH in 2019 and prior to that, she exclusively used e-mails for communicating in business settings. Nowadays, she hardly writes any e-mails and sometimes even forgets to check her inbox.

We asked the marketing expert which challenges Slack faces in the German market, why data storytelling is so important, and which marketing trends she sees in the coming year.

1. What have been the most major changes in work-related communication in recent years?

Before I joined Slack in 2019, I was familiar with work-related communication taking place primarily via e-mail. And for me, Slack itself was more of a chat tool to have a one-on-one exchange, send a file, or make a quick phone call. Through my work at and with Slack, I have learned that we are going through a transformation of our work practices. With that, I mean that tools give us the freedom to work with greater flexibility, to communicate more efficiently, and to illustrate processes much more rapidly.

For example: Here, all information is summarized into one channel and everything is pooled into one place. The people – be they internal or external, the to dos, and also the tools. This gives people the possibility to work more efficiently, to free themselves from silos, and to usher change into the company.

Many companies have also realized this – if somewhat unwillingly – in the past 1.5 years. The demand from the HR and internal communication departments was enormously high.  Not only because people wanted to transform work into the tool but also and especially in order to preserve the culture and communication that normally took place at the office.

2. Which content strategy do you pursue at Slack, and which challenges do you face in marketing and communication?

Our goal is to position Slack as a platform because most people continue to regard it as a pure chat tool.  Messaging is only a feature among many others. We work in channels, follow workflows in real time, work with all important tools from Slack, and integrate external service providers and clients in Slack Connect channels. This is how collaboration on one platform comes into being. Particularly in the German market, we still see a need for clarification in this regard. Moreover, many people think that Slack is primarily suitable for developers and IT specialists. But Slack can be gainfully used throughout an entire company.

This is also the reason why we cover a broad spectrum in our marketing approach and do not have a single target group. With regard to content strategy, this means that there needs to be a good mix of product-focused and thought-leadership content. In addition, I can no longer only rely on one medium nowadays. In order to address different target groups with the right content, we need different content formats, from webinars to podcasts to traditional e-books and blog posts.

3. How important is data storytelling for you?

In my marketing strategy, data storytelling is paramount. It is incredibly important that whatever is said about a product can be demonstrated. And the best way to do that is with numbers, data, and facts. When that’s not done, it can quickly come to pass that the content appears implausible. Here in Germany in particular, storytelling is highly valued. In my opinion, the most important thing is that the story be told from the client’s point of view. Along the lines of “what the customer could do better with our product.” When that can be demonstrated with numbers, it’s a win-win situation.

4. Which content formats work best for you?

Because digital communication is becoming increasingly faster and attention spans continue to shrink, it is important to produce meaningful and compelling content. For this reason, it is crucial to cover all formats. So, as we for example have done with Statista Content & Information Design, we have developed a study, from which elements are in turn presented in webinars. Moreover, an infographic and an interactive microsite have come into being from its contents.

An additional example is our webinar series, “Pioneers of Change”. This format has become prevalent in the past year especially, and in spite of webinar fatigue, it has been successful up until now. Why? Because in terms of content, we focus on thought leadership and allow our customers to speak. It is all about producing high-value content that provides listeners who are in the process of digital transformation concrete tips and best practices from other companies. In addition, we market the series content in a myriad of content formats. Participants have the option of watching the video or listening to the interview as an audio file.  At the end, there is also a visual summary in the form of a graphic recording as well as a synopsis of the content in our Slack Blog. More than ever these these days, it matters that high-quality content is offered in as many formats as possible so that customers can decide for themselves how they want to consume the content.

5. Digital Communication 2022 — What trends do you anticipate?

Many years ago in school, I had the assignment, “What do you think communication will be like in the future?” Digital communication via SMS and e-mail was already an enormous achievement and looking back now, I realize that I couldn’t have even begun to imagine what communication would look like in the year 2022. If someone had told me back then that I would be working with a tool such as Slack and how rapid communication would be, I would not have believed it.

When I look to next year, then I believe we will learn from the pressure that emerged from the pandemic that we can work in even more agile ways and that asynchronous communication will take on greater significance. I also believe that personal interactions will continue to remain important, but they will be used more strategically, and people will appreciate other people’s time more.

If you want to know more about our collaboration with Slack, please have a look here.

Current topics and trends – plus free infographics